Abstract:

It is often remarked that democracy can no longer be thought to be the sole provenance of the territorial nation state.  While many emphasize new non-state forms such as the European Union, they could do so more consistently and rigorously if they saw these developments in the context of a larger shift away from the long held view that democracy is “self legislation”, the act of constituting a “People” that is both the subject and authors of the law.  However much we have presupposed self legislation in thinking about democracy at any level, it is not only misleading under current circumstances; it is also no longer the best way to realize democracy under current circumstances. Rather, it has become increasingly clear that self legislation has now become more regressive than progressive, and that its current realizations are more likely to promote rather than minimize domination. Given the increased possibilities for domination, the proper conception of democracy is now based on self determination rather than self legislation. A democracy based in self determination, I argue, is appropriate given the new circumstances of politics.

James Bohman
Department of Philosophy
St. Louis University